This invention is directed to an apparatus for binding the edges of leaves with heat, and in particular, to an apparatus for binding pages with a heat sensitive adhesive attached to at least one such page edge.
Leaves which can be bound with the apparatus include those of paper, cardboard, synthetic material, and the like. Various methods for binding pages together, either just with each other or to an outside cover, are known in the art. They are used to make books, brochures, and the like.
The production of book covers, brochures, and the like or similar processes sometimes involves gluing page edges to the spine of a folder or to the spine of a brochure using a heat-activated adhesive. This results in a thermoplastic bond between the pages or the pages and the folder. One such apparatus which accomplishes this type of thermal binding is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5 035 561. This apparatus is equipped with a longitudinal electrical heating element having a length which conforms to the length of the spine of the leaves to be bound and is used to melt and glue leaves to the spine of the binding to be produced.
The disadvantage of this apparatus is the complexity of the thermostat and temperature control unit.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved apparatus for producing thermal heat binding.